


30 prompts drabbles (11-15)

by natalunasans



Series: Smaller on the Outside [8]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Agoraphobia, Angst, Chronic Pain, Flashbacks, Gen, M/M, Mythology References, Other, Panic Attacks, Post-Time War, Post-Year That Never Was, Sensory Overload, Time War Angst, Year That Never Was, oceanography, silliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-01-14
Packaged: 2018-09-10 22:03:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8941171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/natalunasans/pseuds/natalunasans
Summary: thanks to: http://stonelions.tumblr.com/post/124337611940/30-multipurpose-prompts-open-to-interpretation





	1. 11. in search of sea life. (Three & Delgado)

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to: http://stonelions.tumblr.com/post/124337611940/30-multipurpose-prompts-open-to-interpretation

Human soldiers push the Master toward the bathysphere; he stalls, re-checking the buckles on his life-jacket. The Doctor enters after him, blocking escape routes. They’re so intent to get him inside the antiquated contraption, noone’s checked his pockets.

While they’re being lowered, the Doctor peers out a porthole. The Master affixes the signal beacon to the wall and activates it, hoping one more device goes unnoticed among many bleeping controls. He’ll offer Poseidon an alliance he can’t refuse.

Unfortunately, the Doctor can read interspecies sonar.

“You do know that’s just a human myth?” 

“Of course, just making certain  _ you _ knew.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks to @halorvic for idea


	2. 15. Please, let’s go home. (10/S!M)

He won’t ask. The Doctor, excited he’s finally coming exploring with them, won’t notice his misgivings.   
  
_ Lovely, isn’t it? _  transmits through the Doctor’s hand as they pull him along. Not expecting answers, they grin up at the too-bright sky.   
  
The Master keeps his mind shielded, especially where pain registers. “Brilliant!”   
  
They’re hurrying up a street now. His eyes downturned and wary, his free hand clenched in nervous gestures. Far too many people walking, eating outside cafés. Shoulders jostle them, unseen eyes judge outsiders.   
  
The Doctor beams at everything, everyone. The Master fights rising panic, forces down his breathing and heartsrate...


	3. 14. It had no eyes. (10/S!M)

It doesn't need eyes, not where it comes from. 

They track it as it echolocates its way back to its burrow. 

The Doctor watches it disappear inside, then follows at a safe distance. 

They gesture to the Master, who mimes back in protest. No longer agile enough to creep silently, he stays aboveground, listening, fighting the urge to pace. 

Noise of a scuffle! He dives inside, follows unintelligible voices… runs into the doctor who’s recovered their device. They scramble out together, back to the TARDIS.

“You were worried?”

The Master, curled up on the floor-grating, gasping for breath: “Me? Never!”


	4. 13. wanderer on a scorched path (Nine, post-timewar)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (not sure about the second half of this)
> 
> anything effective i 'understand' (ha) about the timewar is probably down to [[Time v. 3.0](http://archiveofourown.org/works/471497)]

The usual places are out. In too many the Doctor has wiped the slate so often, ghostly palimpsests of altered timelines hurt to watch.

Ash-grey the air, the path, their mind.

The Doctor kicks themself along like a stone; becoming simplified, crystalised, compressed; ready to throw, someday, with bitter laughter.

* * *

They harden their voice, their look, their outlook.

The Doctor lets themself fall to Earth, the one world kept (by terrible effort) un-rewritten.

Will humans charm, horrify, maybe even still surprise?

They come back to us, not as protector nor as supplicant… Trouble seeking trouble, they arrive like a meteorite.


	5. 12. a blue tin kettle (Martha Jones)

There it sits, on a flea-market table: TARDIS-blue, speckled with stars.

Martha sees it (or one just like; there must be millions) coming to a boil on the cautious campfires of her trek across the continents. Between resistance rendezvous she travelled light, but if there was water there could be tea. 

_Remember how things used to be, how things should be. Remember why you walk the Earth._

_ Think of (the Doctor and) Mum and Dad and Tish and Leo… don’t let yourself feel too much. Strategize to survive, condense and craft the story.  _

_ Return alive. _

She doesn’t buy the kettle.


End file.
